Monday, December 17, 2012

Waiting for Marco

I'll see your African American and raise you a Hispanic

Republicans who criticize Barack Obama's cult of personality are in danger of making the same mistake with Marco Rubio. Don’t get me wrong. By all accounts, he’s a wonderful and intelligent man, and could perhaps make a good president. We don’t know enough about him or his positions yet.

White: The New Black

When did old and white and male become pejoratives? And why? Why must someone be female, gay, ethnic or non-white to generate any buzz or be considered legitimate? Al Gore, Bill Clinton and The Rolling Stones are all old white men. Have we all lost our minds? Are we in the grip of a collective psychosis? I think so.

White men have dominated Western Civilization for two millennia. I understand the exuberance of seeing others rise to enjoy their God-given equality. I rejoice in it myself and view it as another self-correcting achievement of Western Civilization. But this cultural libertinism smacks of the French Revolution and revenge rather than a celebration of equality. We revel in egalite’ while turning our liberte’ over to the government, and saying to hell with fraternite’. We are twisted.

What Would Dr King Do?

Also, this GOP scramble for higher melanin content is unseemly and transparent, and I say that as I tell you Bobby Jindal is my early favorite for 2016. Not because he’s got that exciting ethnic vibe (Indians aren’t exciting anyway. Too nerdy, family-oriented and underrepresented in the all-important popular culture), but because he’s an extremely intelligent man who has a proven-track record.

So, my fellow conservatives, if you’re going to gush all over Marco Rubio, bring the facts and qualifications, or be prepared to be laughed at by those of us tired of hero worship politics. If your only reason for voting for him is that he is Hispanic, you’re no better than the Obama worshipers you've been vilifying these past years.

@Ducky "Every time the phrase, "traditional values" is used we know what you mean .. (white male privilege)."

Naaah.

I have never used the term traditional values in conversation or in writing. But when I hear it I don't think "race or power". I think of parents that discuss issues and eat meals with their children if they are home. I think law abiding, pride in neighborhoods, watching out for one another and some form of spituality when it comes to right and wrong. It might be Ozzie and Harriet or The Cosbys or Modern Family. But it's not race.

I am going to cut you some slack. You usually stay up late. You are either still up or got up too early :-)

Every word you wrote for today is true enough, Kurt, but there's nothing you or I could hope to do about it. "No one can stop an idea whose time has come" -- especially if it's a really rotten idea with cheap meretricious appeal that has the power to sway the masses.

This is not to imply that Marco Rubio is "rotten." As far as I can tell he's a decent, sweet-natured individual. a good father, a faithful husband and a great credit to his parents who came here as poor, hardworking immigrants. Rubio was not born to privilege, and he has "made something of himself."

What that something is -- or is apt to become once the "handlers" -- the image-makers, the myth-makers, the political hypsters, and the ever hateful jackals that comprise the enemedia get through with him -- I wouldn't dare presume to say, but I have a sneaking suspicion that whatever it turns out to be it won't be what this nation needs.

The problem, of course, is that the last thing people of this nation WANT is what they NEED.

And hasn't that always been the case in every society throughout history everywhere?

That is why I most fervently do NOT believe in "democracy."

The masses are asses and cannot be trusted to govern themselves. The last election proved that conclusively.

"The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness . . . This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs. When he first appears, he is a Protector. . . In the early days of his power he is full of smiles. . . When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies . . . and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other in order that the people may require a leader. . . Has he not also another object . . . that they may be impoverished by taxes and thus compelled to devote themselves to their daily wants and [be] therefore less likely to conspire against him?"

AHH, have some of us fallen in to the Liberals bible of Saul Alinsky?Please, I know of no conservative who puts anyone on a pedestal based on the color of ones skin or ethnicity.Case in point "the Republican party started to try to hide it's main motive -- to get back to the days of white male privilege.Every time the phrase, "traditional values" is used we know what you mean"

SA- "The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength."

"...I say that as I tell you Bobby Jindal is my early favorite for 2016. ...because he’s an extremely intelligent man who has a proven-track record."

Really?

Ya' know, the problems you conservatives have with opening your tent to minorities, women, and the young, is your utterly stuttering and uncomfortable speak about them.

Look at Gov. Haley's pick to replace Jim DeMint. Tim Scott is a loony. The GOP is trotting out the candidate, patting themselves on the back for his blackness, who is utterly antithetical to the sorts of people minority voters want to see in office.

It reminds me of that old answer to the question, "What, are you a racist or something?," that goes, "Hey, I have several black friends!," referring to their landscaper, a neighbor they talk to once in a while, and a friendly clerk at the grocery store who likes to talk football.

I grew up in a mixed-race world, knowing very well many people from all over the world, and every sort of heritage. It's not old white men that are the problem, it's old white angry men who resent the world I come from - a huge chunk of America.

Silver, you're doing it again. No serious person is saying Tim Scott is not black, or RG3 is a typical option back in the NFL (re: can be good, but won't win rings) because he is black.

Anyone, liberal or conservative, knows better than that.

You're assuming that just because someone is liberal, they must assume you are a racist because you are a conservative. That simply is NOT true.

You should market your beliefs without accusing people of stupidity, greed, or hate if they disagree with you.

Did it ever occur to you that many good, decent, intelligent people think supply-side economic policy is a bad idea, as well as free trade, the self-perpetuating military and police states, flat taxes, theocracy, and a host of other things we perfectly normal and intelligent people have thought out and come to differ with you, are not stupid?

You guys can trot out all the various colored and gendered "friends" you got. You're still conservative. Sell that to them, and bango, you're a big tent. Congratulations.

I don't know him that well. Go show me where I ever trotted him out as some token friend, as you libs imagine, or show yourself to be just one more dim bulb engaging in leftwing stereotypes that have no merit.

Well, the biggest problem I had with the GOP during this election is that they didn't seem to put up the best candidate. It seems that they nominated the candidate that had the highest probability of defeating President Obama.I don't know much about Rubio either SF. But I am curious what the birther crowd would say about his nomination, or Jindal's for that matter.Of course we won't have to worry about running against a black President in 2016. But what will happen when the Democrats nominate a Jewish person? Will it then become a battle between Christianity and Judaism? Time will tell.

The Founding Fathers and those who fought in the Continental Army were our original Western Heroes, guided by the thinkers of the Enlightenment and following in the footsteps of great warriors like Jan Sobieski and Charles Martel.